Colorado Legislature

Elections

He was elected Republican House
Whip in 1997. He was elected Senate President Pro-tem in 1999. Lamborn served in the Colorado Senate until winning a seat in Congress.[3]

Tenure

While in the State Senate Lamborn sponsored the largest tax cut in Colorado State history,[4] and was named the highest-ranking tax cutter in the Senate five times, by a conservative activist group called the Colorado Union of Taxpayers.[3]

Committee assignments

Lamborn was the ranking Republican on the Colorado State Military and Veterans Affairs, and Appropriations committees.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

On February 16, 2006,
Joel Hefley announced he would retire after 10 terms in Congress.[5]

In the Republican primary to succeed him, Hefley backed his long-time aide, former administrative director
Jeff Crank. The election was held on August 8, 2006, with Lamborn defeating Crank and four other candidates to win the party nomination in a contentious six-way race. In the
Republican primary, he ran on conservative positions:[6] opposing
gun control,
abortion except when the mother's life is threatened, federal funding of
embryonic stem cell research, not providing public benefits to illegal immigrants, and new
eminent domain rulings.[7]

Jeff Crank and
Major GeneralBentley Rayburn[8] both challenged Lamborn in the 2008 Republican primary. Both lost to Lamborn in the 2006 primary. Lamborn won the primary election on August 12, 2008 with 45 percent[9] of the 56,171 votes cast. Crank got 29 percent and Rayburn got 26 percent.

In January 2018, Lamborn announced he would be running for re-election in the 2018 elections. He faced and defeated three challengers in the Republican primary.[13] He went on to win the general election.[14]

Tenure

An office of the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was established in
Colorado Springs in Lamborn's district. The office opened in February 2009 and increased immigration enforcement agents in the area from two to ten. “The immediate need is to address those that have committed a crime and make sure they’re sent out of the country”, Lamborn said. However, this would not place in jeopardy employers who hire illegal immigrants in the first place or who pay these workers without any withholding tax or below the
minimum wage.[15]

There has also been a Brigade Combat Team in his district since December 2007. The Brigade Combat Team consisting of almost 5,000 soldiers, their families, support personnel as well as increased military construction.[16]

Congressional Quarterly said that through the first August recess, Lamborn had voted by strict partisan lines the most of any member in the U.S. House and more than any other Republican.[6]

He led an effort among conservative Republicans to force the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (
OSHA) to discard proposed regulations that would have affected accessibility to small arms ammunition, which were opposed by
Second Amendment groups.[17]

In February 2010, The National Journal named Lamborn the most conservative member of the U.S. House of Representatives.[18]

Lamborn is one of the House Republicans leading the effort against public funding for the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR (
National Public Radio). "I have been seeking to push
Big Bird out of the nest for over a year, based on the simple fact that we can no longer afford to spend taxpayer dollars on nonessential government programs. It's time for Big Bird to earn his wings and learn to fly on his own."
[19]

On August 24, 2007, Jonathan Bartha, who works for Focus on the Family (headquartered in Colorado Springs), and his wife Anna wrote a letter to the editor in a community newspaper expressing concerns about Lamborn's opposition to more restrictions on dog fighting. They were also concerned he had taken several campaign contributions from the gaming industry. A few days later, Lamborn allegedly left two voice mails threatening "consequences" if they didn't renounce their "blatantly false" letter. He also said that he would be "forced to take other steps" if the matter wasn't resolved "on a Scriptural level." The Barthas were shocked by the messages, and Anna Bartha called Lamborn's behavior "not anything we would ever anticipate an elected official would pursue."[20]

Pikes Peak National Cemetery

As a freshman representative, Lamborn introduced legislation directing the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a national cemetery for veterans in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado.[21]
On September 20, 2017, the Veterans Administration awarded a $31.8 Million contract to G&C Fab-Con, LLC, to begin construction on the Pikes Peak National Cemetery in Colorado Springs. Over 13,000 new burial spaces will be available in 2019 and later development will accommodate an estimated 95,000 total spaces. The contract has a Fall 2019 completion date.[22]

In 2008 Lamborn signed a pledge sponsored by
Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes.[24]

Lamborn voted in favor of the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[25] Lamborn claims the bill will benefit
craft beer breweries, many of which are located in Colorado, a benefit touted by Lamborn.[26] Lamborn claims the tax code was simplified in the bill, specifically that people would be filing taxes by "sending a postcard," however, the tax filing process will remain the same, without simplification.[27]

"Tar Baby" Remark

On July 29, 2011, Lamborn appeared on a Denver radio program to discuss the debt crisis and the failure of Democrats and Republicans to reach a compromise on the problem. Lamborn stated "Now, I don't even want to have to be associated with [President Obama]. It's like touching a tar baby and you get it, you're stuck, and you're a part of the problem now and you can't get away."[28] The term
tar baby is sometimes considered to be a racial slur used towards
African-Americans. Former Colorado House Speaker Terrance Carroll, an African-American, replied, “Looking beyond the fact that Congressman Lamborn's entire comment is nonsensical, his use of the term 'tar baby' is unfortunate because [of] the historical connotation of that term when used in conjunction with African Americans."[29]

On August 1, 2011, Lamborn apologized for his use of the slur, "When I said 'tar baby', I was talking economic quagmire that our country is finding ourselves in because of poor economic policy from the White House. I could have used a better term."[30]

Refusal to attend 2012 State of the Union Address

On January 23, 2012, Lamborn announced he would not be attending the President's State of the Union address. According to his spokeswoman Catherine Mortenson, "Congressman Lamborn is doing this to send a clear message that he does not support the policies of Barack Obama, that they have hurt our country", and believed Obama was “in full campaign mode and will use the address as an opportunity to bash his political opponents."[31]

Leak of classified national security information

On April 11, 2013, Lamborn read out in an open session broadcast on C-SPAN an unclassified section from a classified report on North Korean nuclear capabilities. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs refused to confirm the classified report.[32] The Pentagon later confirmed that the Defense Intelligence Agency had marked that sentence as unclassified mistakenly.[33]

Role in 2013 government shutdown

Doug Lamborn is one of the 80 members of the House that signed a letter to the speaker of the house, urging the threat of a government shutdown to defund Obamacare. This group was named the "Suicide Caucus".[34] He voted against the measure that finally ended the shutdown on October 16, 2013
[35]

Colorado Springs Liberty Group Meeting Controversy 2014

September 13, 2014, during a question & answer part of his speech, Doug Lamborn made controversial remarks concerning President Obama's foreign policy. According to reports, Doug Lamborn is quoted to have said "A lot of us are talking to the generals behind the scenes, saying, ‘Hey, if you disagree with the policy that the White House has given you, let’s have a resignation. You know, let's have a public resignation, and state your protest, and go out in a blaze of glory!'" [36]

National security

Lamborn supported President
Donald Trump's 2017
executive order to impose a temporary ban on entry to the U.S. to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. He stated that “By taking steps to temporarily stop refugee admittance from nations that are hotbeds of terrorist activity, the President is taking prudent action to ensure that his national security and law enforcement teams have the strategies and systems in place that they will need to protect and defend America.”[37]

Spring 2017 Votes and Town Halls

Lamborn was among GOP members of the House who did not support Speaker
Paul Ryan's March 2017 effort to repeal and replace the
Affordable Care Act. Seeking a more thorough repeal of the healthcare law, Lamborn said that, "Right now Obamacare stays in place. That’s bad for the American people and it doesn’t leave Republicans an immediate opportunity to carry out their pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare. We need to regroup and very soon find a way to do that.”[38] Subsequent town hall meetings in April 2017 underscored the tension of Lamborn's relationship with the initial policies of the Trump Administration and voters in Lamborn's district.[39]

The bill was written in response to
Iran's choice of
Hamid Aboutalebi as their ambassador.[41] Aboutalebi was controversial due to his involvement in the
Iran hostage crisis, in which of a number of American diplomats from the US embassy in Tehran were held captive in 1979.[41][42][43] Lamborn said that selection by Iran of Aboutalebi as their U.N. ambassador was "unconscionable and unacceptable". He argued that this legislation was needed in order to give the President the "authority he needs to deny this individual a visa."[41]

Economy

Education

Lamborn does not support
Common Core State Standards. He has described Common Care as "deeply flawed" and said it "lowers educational standards," and removes parental influence over children's educations.[50]

Environment

Gun policy

Healthcare

Lamborn has called the
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) a "disaster." He supports the repeal, replacement and defunding of the program. He wants it to be replaced with "conservative, free-market solutions."[50]

He supports the reform of
Medicare and says it is a "wasteful entitlement."[50]

^Gingrich, Newt (17 December 2015).
"The war on Christmas". Washington Times. Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado took a small but important step in Congress this week when he introduced a resolution, H. Res. 564, along with 35 cosponsors, to reassert the place of Christmas in the public square. The resolution “recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas; strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions by those who celebrate Christmas.”